What’s popping in Social Media in 2021
Social Media keeps introducing new features and changing their algorithms, it is as if they undergo an unseen evolution. A few years ago, Snapchat was known for disappearing stories, but now they market the world’s tastiest cakes, DIY tips and latest technology as rewatchable videos in the stories section. By 2021, there are 265+ million users who use Snapchat. These numbers speak for themselves in how quickly people adapt to the evolution of social media.
There are various social media trends that gained spotlight in 2021’s first few months. Of course, we cannot deny that the rapid growth of use of social media is partially thanks to a global pandemic, however, we have kept an eye out on the most trending social media platforms and their features.
We put together a small list to make it easy for you.
1. Stories as social media content
As we said earlier, more than 265 million people check their Snapchat stories now. Also, more than 500 million users interact with the Instagram stories every day. With the expansion of growth in users who interact with stories, we can now take stories as a form of content rather than a status update. Users will be able to access latest trends, news, events, and advertisements through stories, and it is getting quite popular too! 51% brands mentioned that they use videos in stories to grab the attention of their customers, and the numbers do not seem to go down anytime soon!
2. Live streams are not going away anytime soon!
The global pandemic made most businesses go digital, and meetings became Zoom conferences and live concerts became live streams of artists playing at their own places. We can see a significant growth in the use of live streams, Facebook claims they saw a massive increase in messaging and live streaming during the first stage of the pandemic, specially in countries like Italy. The number of views on Facebook doubled in Italy within just a week!
People have gotten use to interacting with their brands at the comfort of their own homes, and live streams are a big part of it. Therefore, it is safe to say that live streams will keep gaining its popularity further into 2021.
3. Social Commerce keeps growing. Fast.
Social Media has always backed their shoppers and sellers, and we see more features coming out to enhance the shopping experience via social media. For an example, the Facebook marketplace has a whole new look now, and you can tag your products on Instagram pictures mentioning the price and link them to your website. Setting up social media storefronts has become another trend and we see social commerce enabling easy checkout for you without even being redirected to the shopping site. 54% of users seem to research on what they buy using social media, and it says that social media referrals can influence the purchase decision of a user up to 71%.
Social Commerce simplifies and shortens the customer journey by allowing customers to explore, decide and buy on a single platform. This is likely to reduce abandoned shopping carts and changing your mind.
4. Purpose driven campaigns gain the spotlight
Social media has been the best place to market and advertise, but now it supports a greater cause. With the global pandemic, brands have shared their story on how they came to the rescue of people trapped by the global pandemic with no help.
A survey gave results of 74% respondents in Twitter that they want brands to show the acts of kindness, which is a major turning point for the customers. 77% feel more positivity towards brands that try to support the society at times of a crisis.
In 2021, we see many brands posting their stories and gaining wider audience as these videos are being shared across all platforms and goes viral. Support for the frontline staff, support given at quarantine centers, support given at vaccinations, support towards uplifting the mental health during the pandemic, these acts are all much appreciated and looked upon.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1242410090860285955
While these 4 trends have gained more attention, we would like to mention the trending social media platforms such as Clubhouse and Telegram, and trending content such as podcasts. We have previously talked about how Clubhouse is gaining more popularity, and we will write about Telegram and podcasts in detail in the future.
There are many other social trends we would like to bring to your attention, and we would like to continue this blog as a thread to our future blogs. Make sure to stay tuned and check our website and social medias pages to stay updated on the latest blogs and we will continue to bring more insightful content for you!